SETTING your sitcom in a pub is usually a pretty good guarantee of some bittersweet laughs. Think 80s ratings-buster Cheers, the underrated Mancunian comedy Early Doors or last year's David Mitchell-assisted Back and the hit-rate is as potent as a pint of snakebite and black.

The latest effort to catch the barman's eye and order a round is Sky's The Reluctant Landlord, starring Romesh Ranganathan and intriguingly based on the comic's own real-life experience of running his father's pub after he died of a heart attack.

In a show where he basically plays himself, Ranganathan is left running the local pub after his mischievous father left it to him in his will. He has never wanted to be a landlord and his far happier playing his hip hop vinyl upstairs, but his mum feels it is the only way to keep his dad’s legacy alive.

Anyone who is already a fan of Ranganathan's brand of deadpan comedy will find much to love here as we are introduced to several of the pub regulars, who (and I speak with some authority) typically prop up his and any bar.

In the series' first episode these include 'Dirty Harry', the kind of pub-dwelling low life familiar to anyone who's done their time both sides of the bar. Brilliantly played by Phil Davis, he is soon trying to pass off fake Scottish bank notes and terrifying all and sundry, including Ranganathan, who tries to pass off him as a "rough diamond" before things inevitably get a bit racist.

These scenes at the bar, which is also populated by flirty Irish barmaid Julie (Yasmine Akram) and Ranganathan's best mate Lemon (Nick Helm), work best and will remind anyone of the same kind of conversations that go on their local.

Less successful are the moments between Ranganathan and his on-screen wife Natasha (Siân Gibson). Perhaps it's still soon after Peter Kay's Car Share to get over seeing Gibson with anyone else but there's certainly a lack of chemistry between the pair that finds them coming across as a most unlikely couple.

Still this is a minor gripe of a new comedy that manages successfully to be funny and poignant. A bit like that feeling after you've had your fourth pint then...